


If I tell the world, I'll never say enough

by crisbarakart



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam and Shiro are getting married, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bottom Lance (Voltron), Boys In Love, But we still love him, Comfort/Angst, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Dorks in Love, Drunken Confessions, Drunken Flirting, Drunken Kissing, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Falling In Love, Feels, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Gay Panic, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Idiots in Love, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Jealous Keith (Voltron), Jealous Lance (Voltron), Jealousy, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Leith - Freeform, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, M/M, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Multi, Non-binary character, Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Protective Ryan, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Rivals, Romellura, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Taylor - Freeform, Taylor AKA Lance, Taylor Headcanon, Teen Angst, Unrequited Love, adam never died here, bisaster, bisexual mess, bisexual mess lance mcclain, chaotic gays, everyone loves lance, jealousy thy name is keith, keith and lance are both a mess, kinklain, klance, lance is dense af, non-binary Pidge, ryan kinkade - Freeform, they called me the taylor, we stan LIVING gays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 15:53:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16579571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crisbarakart/pseuds/crisbarakart
Summary: “I love you.” He stammered, voice breaking between sobs. “I love you, Keith. So much.”Keith’s heart skipped a beat, or maybe blatantly stopped. He couldn’t believe Lance had just said that –he pondered on the possibility of having misheard him– but his voice had sounded so honest and so painfully hurt, he knew there was no way Lance’s words weren’t true. The honesty dripping from his drunk-stained words left Keith breathless. He never thought he’d live to hear those words coming from Lance, he was certain he would never love him back, he thought he liked Kinkade, as much as it pissed him off the idea.But Lance was sitting next to him, in a desolated hallway in the middle of the night, as if they were just idle teenagers, his big ocean eyes looking at him with fear and so much pain, and he felt like the world had just stopped for them.





	If I tell the world, I'll never say enough

**Author's Note:**

> this took me sooo long to write you can't even imagine, i don't usually write one-part fanfiction this long (this is over 18k!! omg) and i'm also a huuuuge procastinator and with college and everything it ended up being harder than expected to finish it  
> i saw the lance and kinkade ship and thought it was so cute (also cool to see lance embrace his bisexuality!) but i'm a klancer at heart so that's how the love triangle was born, along with teenage drama and some angst  
> the title is of the song chasing pavements by adele, i thought it fit well with the story  
> i'm assuming everyone watched s7 by now, but in case someone didn't, beware the spoilers!!  
> hope you all like this <3

The battle against Sendak had been hard, way too hard. It had caused way too many casualties and destruction, it had taken away so much from everybody. Team Voltron had given everything they had, along with the MFE Fighters and the Atlas Team, they had even been ready to give out their own lives if that meant saving the Earth and its inhabitants, whom they valued dearly. They all had family and friends they'd die for. And then it was all over. Sendak was gone, the druid that came out of nowhere, after a long and hard battle, was also gone, and they were all left to recover and slowly move on.

Out of everyone who fought in the war against Sendak, Team Voltron had taken the worse hit, leaving them completely drained and hurt, so they'd spent weeks at the hospital, healing and recovering from the battle. It wasn't that bad, friends and family would come to visit them, even people from the Garrison came to congratulate them on their great work at the battle, and it was also kind of rewarding to see themselves on the news as national –worldwide– heroes. Of course, they never did none of that for the fame and the gratitude, but it was heart-warming to see people be so proud of them.

In the most part, if you ignored the injuries, their stay at the hospital was good, it even allowed them to bound as a team –as friends. It let them time to have long conversations and more trivial ones, and even to play games together whenever they met in one of the rooms of one of the members of Voltron or in the common room of the hospital, where patients who weren't that seriously ill or injured could stay during certain hours of the day, so they wouldn't be boringly confined in their hospital room. Coran had even brought them a Monsters and Mana game, god knows where it came from, since everybody thought it had been lost along with the Castle of Lions, but everyone was very happy to see the game again and be able to play it. Keith, who hadn't been there the first time they played it, couldn't understand all the enthusiasm at first, but it only took him a bit of playing to love the game just as much as everyone else. In fact, the game even caught the interest of other patients at the hospital, so it ended up staying at the common room so that more people could enjoy it. When they finally left the hospital, it was hard to let go, since they had played numerous rounds while staying there, but it would do more good to those people.

And then, after weeks at the hospital, hurt but having so much fun –the most fun they had had in months, since they were finally able to relax and take things slow– they were sent back to the Garrison. There was still so much work to do, everyone was working to get Earth to be what it used to be, they needed to reconstruct it but also protect it.

And that's exactly how the MFE Fighters and the Voltron team ended up assigned together; they had to eliminate all of the galra drones that still remained on Earth to keep its population safe. It seemed simple and logic to have both teams working together to secure Earth, after all, they had all battled on the war against Sendak; but maybe it wasn't going to be that simple for them all to collaborate and work together. They weren't on such bad terms, but they weren't on good terms either.

"Listen," Keith had said, when they were all reunited in one of the conference rooms of the Garrison, taking his usual position as the leader of Voltron. "it's not as if we all like each other very much, but these are orders and we don't have any other but to obey them."

At that, James had scoffed. "Seems like Mr. Disciplinary Case has finally learned to take his head off his ass and think about others too, a trip to outer space really does wonders."

Keith grit his teeth, and everyone tensed, it was known by everyone that these two weren't exactly friends, they had had some issues in the past and Lance, Hunk and Shiro were well aware of it. The two of them, Lance and Hunk, –Shiro being off to do other things, since he had been assigned to another team and another mission– were watching the situation unfold, ready to separate them in case they ended up in each other's throats.

When they were informed of the position they'd take on the Garrison when they had came back recovered from the fight, no one was particularly happy about it. They'd much rather have worked on their own as only Team Voltron, but that wasn't about them, that was about what was better for everyone on Earth, and they really had no say on the whole topic now that they were working with the Garrison and not on their own in space. Keith had promised them to be civil, to focus on the mission and leave their differences aside, but James seemed to differ and there was only so much Keith could take when being provoked; and everyone knew that.

Keith, angry frown already on his face, opened his mouth, and when everyone was ready for some rude comeback that would most likely end up in an argument between these two, rising more tensions, Kinkade talked instead.

"James, just shut up."

James seemed to open his mouth to talk back to his teammate, almost as angry as Keith and definitely as happy as him about having to work together, but a quick look from Kinkade made him shut his mouth again with a quick eye roll. From afar, it almost looked like a kid being scolded by his mom. At that, Keith had –badly and most likely not even trying very hard– hidden a laugh, further pissing James off, who you didn't really have to know that much to be aware of his short temper.

Kinkade placed a hand on James' shoulder at the same time as Lance placed one on Keith's, almost as if it was some kind of second-hand man secret technique to calm down the leader, a silent warning, and then they were off to focus on the mission in hand, with some occasional bickering.

They assigned everyone's positions on the mission, planned their routes and movements and placed everyone on their correspondent team.

Lance stared at Keith, finishing some last planning next to Kinkade, James and Pidge, and wondered, how much of that bickering was really true, because even after all the arguing, Keith was the one to suggest getting teamed up with James and Pidge. And Lance couldn't help but feel his mood drop, remembering the conversation he had over-heard at the hospital, in Keith's hospital room.

~*~

The time spent at the hospital had been good, Lance thought. He had finally had time to relax, to only focus on his recovery and leave the stress and pressure of the war aside. For once, he could play around, talk to his friends, play board games and even catch up with his family after so much time spent away from them. He had missed them so much, and sometimes it even felt as another one of those dreams he used to have back in the Castle of Lions, when he would wake up in the middle of the night, crying at how reuniting with his family and spending time with them had just been a dream. Now it felt so good to be able to open his eyes in the morning and still have them there.

But so much time on his own, without any real task to focus on, had also allowed him to have too much time to think. Too much time to let his self-doubt reemerge, to wonder if he really was good enough, if he was really cut out to be on Voltron. Back then, when they were in space, they really had no other option, not everyone could pilot the lions so they had to do with what they had, but now? Now they were at the Garrison, where they trained pilots, pilots who could easily surpass him, who would do better than him on being the Red Paladin. He wasn't even that important for the team either, he was just the seventh wheel, the joke and flirt of the team; he was never taken seriously.

Allura had never taken him seriously. He was in love with her, he was the most serious he had been about anyone before, but it didn't matter to her. Until it did. It seemed like, now that he was starting to be over her, she suddenly cared about him. And what made it a bigger mess was that he was getting over her by crushing on another one of his teammates; Keith. He was just in too deep and he blamed his stupid bisexuality on this one. He was, literally, the definition of  _bisaster_.

He had never told anyone about his sexuality, hell, he even had trouble admitting it to himself at first. He had had crushes on guys, as well as girls, he just never let that show. He didn't want to confront his feelings, to let people know that a part of him liked guys, so he over-compensated. He kept flirting with girls, showing the world how much he liked girls, while he kept it a secret when he liked a guy.

Yet he had never liked any other guy the way he liked Keith. It felt so natural, like they fit together perfectly, as if they complimented each other and one made up for what the other lacked. He felt like he could put on a blind faith on the guy; Keith could tell him to go in front of the enemy, unarmed, and he'd do it without a second thought. It took him so much to get to this point, to finally come clean and admit to himself that he never  _ever_  despised Keith, he was just scared, but that guy had caught his attention since day one. Lance was sure now that he wanted to be with Keith, he was sure he was all he wanted. Yeah, a space princess was cool, but a half-alien who could kick your butt? That was something else.

Yet Keith probably didn't feel that way, he most likely didn't reciprocate his feelings. Keith was just so awesome. He was half-alien, with a cool-ass alien mom and a cool-ass space wolf, knew how to kick butts and was an amazing leader, everyone trusted him and his decisions. Keith deserved someone better, someone stronger; not someone like Lance. Not someone who was constantly doubting himself, who didn't really contribute that much to the team.

"Seriously, what's wrong, Keith?" Lance heard Shiro's voice coming from Keith's room, where they all had decided to meet up that day to hang out for a bit, so that they wouldn't be bored to death in their hospital rooms. "You know that I'm not gonna believe that 'it's nothing', I know you better than that. And you know it."

Lance paused at the door, he didn't want to interrupt, it seemed like a serious conversation and Shiro barely came to the hospital to visit –he was so busy these days at the Garrison, he had taken an important role in the fight against the galra and in protecting Earth, and since he wasn't that badly injured in their last battle, he didn't stay hospitalized for that long–, so he wanted to let them have that conversation. He didn't want to eavesdrop, but he was too exhausted to go back to his room and come back later. Besides, it was almost the time they'd decided to meet up, the others would be there soon too. And, fuck it, who was he trying to fool? He was also curious as to what was bothering Keith. Lance cared about him.

He heard Keith's sigh come from the other side of the door.

"It's just... I like someone."

Lance heart skipped a beat.

Shiro laughed. "That's it? That's what's wrong? Damn, Keith, what's so bad about liking someone?"

"It's just... I'm pretty sure he doesn't like me back." Keith statted, and Lance felt like he could perfectly relate yet, at the same time, thought about how dumb Keith had to be to think someone wouldn't like him.

"Keith–."

"I'm serious, Shiro!" Keith interrupted his friend, a little abruptly, but Lance could hear the frustration in his friend's voice. "He's just so amazing, he could probably take down a whole galra cruise by himself. And I don't know... I know we've been all over each other since day one, bickering and just not being able to be in the same room together, but... after all this time without seeing him... I feel like... damn, I love him."

"So, tell him."

"I can't! He'll for sure reject me!" Keith groaned, as if getting even more frustrated. "And to make matters worse, when we get out of here, we'll have to work on the same team again!"

Lance paused then. He rested his back on the wall next to Keith's hospital room door, deflating, feeling as if his heart was slowly breaking into a million pieces. And it hurt. It hurt like anything he had ever felt. He was a hopeless romantic, he fell hard for people and, consequently, got inevitably hurt by it. He liked to fantasize about adventures, coffee shop dates and 'I love you's whispered in the dark; but then it all ended coming crashing down. How could he'd kept some sort of hope on Keith liking him back? He felt the pressure on his chest, almost making it hard to breath, the pain on his throat and the burning on his eyes threatening to make him cry.

It was clear he was talking about James. He had seen how they looked at each other since they got back to Earth, as if there was some sort of tension in the air, as if they wanted to approach each other, but something, most likely their history, was keeping them from it. They had been assigned on the same team numerous times in the battle against Sedak, Lance could even remember seeing them sit together at the cafeteria once or twice, and Lance wasn't blind, he didn't like that guy that much, but even then, he could see James had gotten so fucking hot since they last saw him. It was sort of unfair, how such a dumbass could look that good, and now he was even stealing away his man. Well, he wasn't his man, he didn't even like him back, yet it still felt as if James was stealing Keith away from him. It felt like something personal, as if he had been building up this relationship with Keith, this whole fake-rivalry that developed into a trust-based friendship, companionship, and now all it took was for Keith to see James, spend a few weeks together, and lose him.

He pushed himself away from the wall, whipping off a few unwanted tears, and went back to his hospital room. He couldn't face Keith right now, he couldn't bare to look at the guy he loved, at the guy he felt like spending the rest of his life with, knowing he liked someone else. He went back to his hospital room, deciding that, if anyone came looking for him, he'd just say his injuries were giving him a tough time that day and he'd rather stay there.

"Well, one would be dumb to not put you and Lance on the same team. You really are a good team." Shiro told Keith.

~*~

Lance didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about Keith and James spending more time together, getting all the planning done, the looks and the bickering, and the future mission they'd go to together. He didn't want to think about how he wanted to spend more time with Keith, now that he was finally back on the team, but how he was avoiding him instead, because he simply couldn't deal with his own feelings. He couldn't bare to look at him, knowing that he was in love with him, that Keith felt like looking at the moon, the sun and all the stars at once, that he was way more fascinating than all of the planets they've seen, that he would give everything he had for him; yet knowing that Keith would never feel that way for him.

So, instead of thinking, of feeling too much, he had been focusing all of his energy on training.

In the little time they had been there, Allura –with some help of Coran– had managed to set up an altean training simulation. It was much simpler than the one in the old Castle of Lions, due to not having the necessary technology and materials nor the time to build a proper one, yet it still worked pretty well. Everyone at the Garrison had given it a shot by now, most of them incorporating it to their training routines. It was so popular, in fact, that one was lucky to find an empty slot to use it. That's why Lance had decided to make an extra effort to wake up very early in the morning, at a time when everyone was sleeping and he could actually get his time with the training simulation. Everyone was exhausted with the different missions the Garrison was taking to restore Earth, so the personal profusely valued the few hours of sleep one could get. For Lance though, it wasn't that hard to wake up at four am to train. He had been in space, where The Galra Empire took no consideration regarding sleeping schedules when attacking, where the fear and lack of fighting experience had pushed him to build up an exhaustive training routine and to push his limits until he was lying on the floor covered in bruises gotten from the altean drones. He had felt so much pressure back then, feeling the need to improve his combat skills ripping him from the insides, shouting at him to try harder, train harder, to not be left behind categorized as 'not good enough'. And now, back at the Garrison, surrounded with such adept people, he was feeling that pressure resurfacing, eating him from inside; just as much as his feelings for Keith. He needed to focus all of his efforts on the training.

He dodged a hit from the tall drone in front of him, making his bayard transform from his riffle –that he had previously used with the other set of drones, to practice his long-rage shooting– into his sword, hitting the drone that was coming for him from behind and then kicking the one in front of him. Allura had made these way too easy.

"Wow, took me at least three days to pass that level, you Voltron people really are tough ones." He heard a voice come from the door say, full of admiration, making him blush at the compliment.

Lance turned, surprised to see someone up so early, it wasn't even five am yet, and found one of his companions of the new Garrison team he had been assigned to; Kinkade. He was carrying his own riffle, so he figured that he was also planning on practicing his shooting too. Lance remembered seeing him shoot when they'd been on the same team during the war against the galra, he was good, so good it made him think the MFE Fighters really had their reputation as the best Garrison cadets well-earned. It made Lance kind of jealous, thinking back on the day, when he was still a cadet at the Garrison, how much of a mess he was. It made him think about how destiny was really such a thing, because had he stayed, had he not fled with Shiro and the others on Blue, maybe he wouldn't be that good now.

"And you're the one telling me that, you guys are the best cadets out there." Lance answered, smiling, whipping off his sweat with a towel. "I'm just used to this training simulator, back in space we had one harder than this. I think this is like... a level ten on the one at the Castle of Lions? You should see how fucked level forty leaves you."

Kinkade looked surprised at that statement.

"We really are behind you guys."

Lance waved his hand, dismissively, and let out a laugh.

"No way, dude! Don't you remember how much I sucked when I was still at the Garrison? I always failed the simulator. And Hunk was always puking. To be honest, I think the only good one in our team was Pidge." He smiled at the thought, remembering the old times and taking in how much they had grown since then; Lance didn't crash spaceships nor did Hunk puke all over everything anymore.

"Well, I guess we are the ones with the higher rankings here, but you've got so much experience that we don't. While you were out there flying real spaceships in space we were stuck with the simulation version of it."

Lance let out a soft laugh. "I guess it's a way to put it."

Maybe Lance had been so obsessed with being the best here at the Garrison, getting the higher rankings and best grades, and all he needed in order to get better was some real experience, another method to get to be a good pilot. Maybe some people did good at installing a new TV reading the instructions while others did better just fiddling with the settings until it worked.

"Hey," Lance said, to get Kinkade's attention again, now that he was leaving his stuff on a corner of the room, to wait for his turn, he guessed. "how about we see who shoots more drones in... let's say... five minutes?"

Kinkade seemed a bit hesitant at first, as if he was convinced Lance was too good to challenge, something Lance still couldn't quite grasp –they were seen as these awesome, unbreakable heroes in the eyes of everyone, as if they forgot they too were humans, humans with weaknesses and who constantly made mistakes, just like everyone else– yet, at the end, he saw Kinkade smile and come closer.

"Deal." He said, extending a hand for Lance to shake.

Lance shock his hand, smiling back. "It's on."

~*~

Allura missed Altea. Maybe now that the paladins had returned to their home planet, to their families, more than she had missed it in a long time. She'd felt a pang of jealousy the moment they had spotted Earth, the moment she heard –felt– the glee of every one of the earthlings come through the intercoms. She had stared at that blue planet, taking in its beauty, thinking about how it was no wonder the paladins had missed it so much. It was breathtaking, with that deep blue and its different lands painting figures on the blue surface, making it so fascinating to Allura to think that every little part of land was filled with millions of humans like her friends. Yet, she would never see that planet as beautiful as the others would, they stared at it like it was the brightest star, the most beautiful place in the whole universe –incomparable to any other place they've even been–; and Allura just felt the numbness of breaking through the atmosphere of yet another foreign planet. She felt the sadness, too, vivid and painful, crawling through her bones and tearing her flesh open with a new wave of pain. A pain long buried but still so well-known, a pain that kept resurfacing, that came back like old demons whenever she thought she was over it all.

She missed Altea, her home planet. She missed its people, the beautiful landscape, every corner of the royal palace and, of course, her family. She felt so alone. She was lucky to have Coran and, maybe, Romelle too, but it still felt so lonely in moments like these.

It was in moments like these, that she wished, with all of her heart, that it was all just a dream. A pretty twisted one. She really hoped she could just close her eyes and open them again to be lying on her bed, at the castle in Altea. And she'd get up and go to the main dinning room, with its huge table and the pretty gold chandeliers that hung from the ceiling, the ones that had been there for ages yet still looked as beautiful as the first day, and there, barely illuminated by the faint light of the dawn coming from the large windows, would be sitting her family, having breakfast. A breakfast that, as much as Allura appreciated Coran's food, would be amazingly delicious. And she'd sit at the table, greet her family, and proceed to tell them about her dream. She'd say how relieved she was that her parents weren't actually dead and that there wasn't any war threatening to destroy everything. Maybe, in that utopian world, Zarkon would visit frequently, along with Honerva and their son, Lotor. In that reality, maybe they would've worked out, maybe Lotor would've been honest, loyal and good, and not yet another heartbreak that made it difficult to breathe sometimes.

But then she opened her eyes again, and suddenly, without taking any real notice, almost as if her body was an empty shell with its own drive, she was dressed in foreign weird orange clothes, in a room full of those weird-eared humans.

She was determined to die for the cause. It wasn't like she had a place she belonged to anymore, anyways. Her life, as long as it meant saving the universe and maybe, compensate –she didn't want to call it revenge, she didn't believe in such heartless and compulsive things, it wasn't in her altean nature– for everything the galra empire had taken from her, it was disposable. She was just a small part, dust that would fade into nothingness at the end, in this whole universe. She was so small. She was a princess without a reign, without its people, without a home.

But for some reason, the universe had taken a liking in tormenting her, in not letting her rest. Coran, of course, was so happy about this. He had left it very clear when he jumped to hug her as soon as she opened her eyes in the human hospital, Allura could almost swear she saw him quickly wipe his tears with the hideous orange suit's sleeve just before he pulled away. And then, all of a sudden, she regretted ever thinking of leaving, of giving up. Coran had also lost everything, he had even lost the Castle of Lions that was so dear to him, and she knew that, deep down, he was just as torn by everything as she was. They were all the other had. They were, somehow, a family.

Allura cared for her family, for her dear ones, so, after all that happened, she had promised Coran she'd keep trying.

She ended up working for the Galaxy Garrison after they all recovered. The paladins were assigned to work with another team of humans, students of that place about their age, while she was destined to work in perfecting the human's devices using her more advanced altean knowledge. She was also set responsible for taking care of the altean that was found inside the drone they had fought till their last breath. It was all so different, she felt so out of place, that it overwhelmed her a bit sometimes. She had grown so accustomed to working along side Team Voltron, and now they were on their own, with another team, and she was set to work on other stuff, at the rear-guard. She was always pulled away from the fighting spot.

"They told me you'd be here." She heard that voice, that characteristic accent, that melodic voice; Romelle.

She turned around, spotting said girl standing at door frame, staring at her from the distance. She had that curious look in her eyes that never truly left her, it was like a child's intrigue at the wonders of the life, it made Allura think about how maybe Romelle was that way because of being trapped in the altean colony all those years, kept away from the entire universe, from reality, from the truth. Perhaps it was just now that she was opening her eyes to brand new worlds.

"Yeah, I've been working on some human devices that need to be modified. The paladins really weren't lying when they said altean technology was way more advanced that the human's." Allura chuckled, without turning around, keeping her gaze on the device she was working on.

"Are you okay, Allura?" Romelle asked her then, a hand placed on her shoulder.

It felt like a touch of reality, like touching a piece of glass that was at the verge of breaking, because, really, Allura wasn't doing so well. She felt terribly lonely.

She felt the lump on her throat and swallowed, not wanting to break down. She was strong and, besides, there was nothing she was going to gain by crying; her family, her home planet, even Lotor, wasn't going to come back because of sheading a few tears.

So, she nodded, lying. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Romelle grimaced, clearly not buying it, and sat on the table where the princess had all the equipment she was using. She stared at her for a few seconds, as if analyzing her, and Allura felt the intensity of her gaze burning into her skin, making it hard to ignore it and focus on the task in hand, even if she was determined to ignore Romelle, along with all of her sadness and problems, and keep on working.

"I also miss my family." Romelle said then, almost in a whisper, as if vulnerably was a secret that couldn't be heard by the world, and it hit just the right spot to make Allura almost drop the utensil she was using in that moment. "It's okay if we do, that makes us good people, doesn't it? It shows we care about others."

Allura pressed her lips together, not wanting to have that conversation, feeling like if that kept going, she might actually break in tears, but, at the same time, not having the heart to stop Romelle from talking, seeing her good intentions. She left everything on the table and stared at it, as if she needed to focus her gaze on something to keep herself from crying.

"You care about others, Allura." The blond one stated, still looking at her without blinking. "I can't even begin to imagine all the weight your holding on your shoulders, all by yourself."

She got down from the table, taking a step closer to Allura, somehow hesitant.

"You... You don't have to hold the weight of worlds all by yourself."

She was so bold, always going straight to the point, not even pausing to consider her words but just voicing every little thing that went through her head. She was like a crack of light, a new hope for what was thought an extinct civilization. She had brought hope and knocked sense into Allura since day one.

Allura smiled, feeling the first tear roll down her cheek.

"I'm really so glad we met."

Romelle smiled, a little blush on her cheeks as she opened up her arms, welcoming Allura to embrace her, to let her console her, and Allura melted into her warmth, into the nice smell of lavender and rain that was Romelle.

~*~

They were laying on the floor, its cold tiles against their backs, with shaky breaths. Their riffles had been discarded on the floor, done with the training, and now Lance could feel his free hand brushing Kinkade's, making his heart pick up speed. He looked at the boy, discreetly, through the corner of his eye. Lance knew Kinkade was handsome, he had seen it since he first saw him, but he didn't realize until now just how  _hot_  he truly was. His beautiful dark skin, shining with sweat, with a few strands of black hair stuck to his forehead. Eyes closed and lips slightly parted, breathing heavily. His broad chest rising and falling with every breath. Lance was mesmerized.

It was everything so different from Keith, and he couldn't help but to list the differences. Keith's pale skin, like porcelain, his violet eyes, almost burning holes into him every time they looked at him. How Keith was shorter, skinnier and less gentle. Kinkade felt like a calm sea, all green flags, the kind you were sure you could dive in without any danger ahead. Kinkade was like summer mornings in the beach at Varadero, calming and worry-less, full of playful splashing in the sea with his brothers and cones of ice cream. Keith felt like an agitated sea, with dark clouds above it threatening to pour down a violent storm, an ocean you knew you shouldn't dive in, yet you were pulled towards it, fascinated. He was all red flags, telling you you'd get hurt, better to pull back and forget about it, but Lance kept walking ahead, submerging deeper in it.

"That really was something." Kinkade said then, after a few seconds of only their heavy breathing filling the room.

"Yeah, you're good at this." Lance agreed, with a faint smile, still sort of fighting to get air into his lungs.

Kinkade laughed softly, a breathy and tired laugh, shaking his head. "You so kicked my ass, McClain."

Lance laughed, he had indeed shot more drones that his new friend lying next to him, but, to be fair, not by that far. Kinkade may lack actual experience, but he had so much ability. He was fast and had good reflexes. He was also well-built –Lance had to restrain himself from checking the guy out for the tenth time that day, to keep his eyes off the MFE Fighter's biceps, showing through the black tank top–, and so many years of strict lessons at the Garrison surely paid off well on him.

"Yeah? Well, my ass is the only thing you're gonna see next, because I'm beating you to the cafeteria."

He quickly got up, having already recovered from the exhaustion of their training, and took off running, to the Garrison's cafeteria where, by now, they were surely already serving breakfast. Lance was starving after so much work out, and he couldn't wait to dig in some delicious human food. Sure, a school's cafeteria's food wasn't the highest cuisine, everyone knew caterings were never that good, and, back in the day, he had complained with his friends about just how awful some food they served there was, but after so much time eating that space goo, even an ear of corn –something he'd hated since he was little– seamed mouth-watering. It was also comforting to know he didn't need to choose between starving or going through the possibility of getting sick for eating something that didn't go well with human species.

He heard Kinkade laugh behind him, calling him a traitor for not giving him a warning before taking off, and how he got up and ran after him.

Lance laughed too, running through the halls of the Garrison that were starting to fill with people, some heading to the cafeteria for breakfast and others already having gotten their hands on paperwork. Lance avoided them with ease, making them stare at him for running past them, some even complaining about so much racket first thing in the morning. His legs felt weak under the weight of his body, still not fully recovered from the training session, and his lungs were burning, desperately begging for air, yet he was determined to win that competition. Lance took this kind of things very seriously, he was a competitive person by nature, and losing was never an option to him. Also, perhaps you could also say challenging boys was his way of gay-flirting.

They got to the cafeteria almost at the same time, Lance barely touching the door a second before Kinkade. He bent over, hands on his thighs, gasping for air.

"I... really... need to... train more..." Kinkade barely managed to say, between puffs. He was leaning on the door frame, his breathing just as heavy as Lance's.

For a few more seconds, they just stood there, trying to get air to their lungs and breath properly again, taking in how good it felt to rest after so much physical work. It felt like being a kid again, it took Lance back to the summers in Varadero, when his siblings and him would challenge each other to see who made it faster to the beach. His shaky breath, trying to get his short legs to surpass his older siblings –siblings just as competitive as him who would never go easy on him, maybe shaping him into what he was now, making him grow up to always strive for more– and then his feet would leave the asphalt ground to sink into the warm sand, which it'd burn under his feet making him run faster, until it was all over and they were diving in the ocean. Lance would feel the relief and the tiredness of the race being over, the cold water against his skin, yet comforting from the heat of the summer sun, and he'd smile, and right then, it wouldn't matter who won the race, because they'd soon be into another competition.

"Damn, you almost got me there, Kinkade." Lance said, standing up straight again, his breathing back to normal, looking at the guy next to him.

Kinkade smiled, also recomposing himself. He was taller than Lance, the height difference being more notable than it was with Keith and him, but he wouldn't complain, although he would never admit to it, he liked taller guys.

"You can call me Ryan, Kinkade's my last name."

"Oh, okay." Lance nodded.

He had thought about how Kinkade was kind of an odd name to have, but still such a cool and out of the ordinary one, thinking back to it now, he should've guessed it was a surname, everyone pretty much went by surnames at the Galaxy Garrison.

They moved to the front of the canteen, were there was already a queue of people waiting with their trays to get their food, although the whole place wasn't that full yet, with only a few tables taken.

"Man, I know this food is pretty shitty, but oh, how I've missed it." Lance said, as soon as he had his own tray of warm breakfast food.

Ryan laughed in response, nodding, as they moved to the back, where there were a few empty tables where they could sit. The plan for the day was to put the last details of the mission together in the morning and then get their equipment ready in the afternoon. Pidge and Hunk were planning in doing a few modifications to it, so the rest of the new formed team would probably appear anytime soon to get breakfast too. They figured they could save them a few spots.

"I also missed movies soooo much." Lance added, once they were sitting.

He was so keen on movies, he used to spend days in watching movies in his room, whenever he had free time, was on holidays or simply as a way of procrastinating, with a bunch of snacks next to him that he'd later regret eating since it was so counterproductive for his skincare. He would also do marathons of movies with his siblings whenever they were all home for the holidays –the Harry Potter series was such a winter break classic marathon to do for the McClain family– and go to the cinema with Rachel when a new interesting movie came out, since she was also a movie fanatic.

"You like movies?" Ryan asked him, with a gleam in his eyes that Lance hadn't seen yet on him until that moment. Lance nodded, shyly. "That's so cool! To be honest, I wanted to study film-making, it was my first option, but I ended up in the Galaxy Garrison."

After that statement, it all kicked off. They ended up submerged into an enthusiastic conversation about movies, Lance telling Ryan about his favorite movies, telling him about his favorite scenes, talking about his favorite actors and directors and Kinkade listened closely to all of it, putting in his own take on it. Since Ryan loved film-making, it also meant that he took more notice than Lance ever did in the stuff that made the movie what it was –the camera shoots, the special effects– which opened up a new perspective to Lance about all the movies he had watched.

At some point of the conversation, he had spotted Keith, along with Shiro, entering the room. For a second, they locked eyes, Lance felt the pull on his chest, his heart jumping at the sight of that boy who had slowly but surely stolen his heart away, the warmth of those cold lilac eyes. Yet he looked away, back to the boy who was siting beside him, ranting about as movies Lance loved as much as him, too hurt to keep holding Keith's gaze. Keith was magnetizing, it didn't matter that he was having a great time with this new friend, or that he was talking about his favorite movies, about something he was passionate about, when Keith stepped in a room, it was all Lance could see and feel. It was like his heart running back home, like it knew where it belonged, but, ironically enough, he was running to an empty house, one demolished by unrequited love.

So, he smiled, and wished life was beautiful enough that it could ever allow him something as beautiful as  _The Notebook_.

~*~

Keith was frustrated. He refused to call it jealousy as Shiro and Adam insisted, he wasn't the jealous type. Yet, stepping into the cafeteria and seeing Lance, the guy he was head over heels in love with, with another guy,  _clearly_  flirting, hadn't risen positive feelings in him.

He wanted to be with Lance, he really did, he wanted to spend the rest of his life by his side, taking care of each other, growing old together. Keith was sure, by now, after all they've been through, after all this time, that Lance was all he needed. But was he to Lance? Clearly not. Why would he even like Keith? He left the team, a team in which he didn't even fit that much to begin with, and when they were together, things weren't much better as they were always arguing.

Maybe he should just... let it go. Forget about Lance and move on, find another guy to love and cherish as much as he did with Lance, even if it hurt, even if now it seemed like he couldn't ever possibly love someone as much as he loved that idiot.

"Is this about Lance again?" Adam asked, not rising his gaze from the fashion magazine he was going over, sitting next to Keith on the sofa of the room Adam and Shiro used to share back in the days and that they had gone back to sharing. "Damn, this is next level, having a crush for this long. How did you call him before? Taylor? You might as well mar–."

"Lance was Taylor!?" Keith screamed, surprised, sitting up straight.

At this, Adam did rise his gaze from the magazine, looking at him dumbfounded, as if he couldn't believe him. Shiro, who was looking over the catering they were planning to have for the wedding, sitting on one of the stools of the bar in the kitchen, also turned to look at him.

When they all came back to Earth, Adam had been furious but so relieved to see Shiro again. He was worried about his boyfriend getting hurt, dying, and that's exactly what had happened to Shiro in space. He had got hurt several times, lost an arm, and, on top of that, died. Still, Adam loved Shiro too much to stay mad at him for too long, he was beyond happy to see him back at the Garrison, alive and well, all things considered. It took a bit of talking, and a few weeks of testing the waters, see if their relationship could get back to working as well as it used to. At the end, though, it was clear that Shiro still loved Adam, he never stopped thinking about him, there was never a night when he didn't go to sleep thinking about him, wondering if he was doing well. And as for Adam, he loved Shiro so much, he regretted their last words being such an awful conversation, and when he'd seen him again, stepping into the Galaxy Garrison, he felt his heart slowly putting the pieces back together.

So, after a few weeks dating, Shiro had kneeled on the floor for Adam a second time, and now they were planning the wedding, wanting to get married as soon as possible, not wanting anything to tear them apart again. Still, it was clear that all that had happened had, somehow, strengthened their relationship; if they had pulled through all of that, they could live through any other crisis.

Shiro laughed at Keith, finding it so funny to see that, to this day, Keith still didn't know Lance wasn't called Taylor and that he hadn't added two and two and pieced together that that boy, that Taylor guy he liked so much back at the Garrison, was Lance. If you thought about it, it was kind of endearing to think he had fallen for him twice, without realizing.

"Oh, my god, Keith." Shiro said, still laughing, remembering the old times when Keith would go on and on about how cute  _Taylor_  was. "You're such a chaotic gay."

"I don't wanna hear that from you." Keith answered, shooting him a look, and Adam snorted.

"He's right, you know? I still remember the first time you asked me out, you tripped on your shoelaces and fell on top of me in the middle of the hallway."

Keith laughed, he'd never get tired of hearing that story, especially considering how embarrassed Shiro always got. Keith remembered that, when that had happened, Shiro had practically dragged him to the hoverbikes, just so he could forget about the embarrassment of what had happened. Keith had laughed so much when he managed to get Shiro to tell him what got to him, swearing he'd never be such a disaster; turns out, he ended up picking that up from his brother Shiro.

"You could say he fell for you, Adam."

The fiancées shot him a look at that terrible pun.

"You spend too much time with Lance." Shiro joked, going back to eying the different menus from caterings they were thinking about hiring for the wedding.

At that, his smile completely dropped. He used to spend so much time with Lance. Now though? He barely talked to him. At some point, it felt as if Lance had started to drift away from Keith. It seemed as if he had gotten tired of him. It hurt, but Keith had started to think that the only reason they talked, joked around, was because they were confined in the Castle of Lions together. Maybe Lance only learnt to get along with him for the sake of Voltron, for the bittersweet nostalgia of Keith being one of the few humans out there –even though he technically was half human–, missing home too much and clinging onto the remains of it, clinging onto people who understood what it felt like to be so far from planet Earth.

It was no wonder to Keith, even more considering how charming Lance was, how he seemed like the star that every other planet rotated around, with so much brightness, with a magnetism that pulled you into wanting to know him better and be closer to him, that now that they were back he was making new friends. He knew this would happen, he knew as soon as they got back to Earth they would spend less time together, Lance would want to go back to his family, for starters.

And Keith, he wasn't someone as fascinating. He was always left behind, being too much for people or things just being too complicated for them to stay. He was used to loss and loneliness.

Yet he never imagined it would hurt this much when it came to Lance.

Keith hadn't thought about how tough it'd be to see Lance drift apart from him, to barely talk, to only see each other when it was strictly necessary. He hadn't really considered, how painful it'd be to see Lance, the boy he'd fallen so hard for, spend time with other people, see him laugh when he joked around with them, see him use stupid pick up lines with them, or just simply talk to them. He was aware of how that was just Lance being Lance, someone so nice he couldn't help but end up surrounded by people, yet, somehow, it felt like betrayal. And seeing Lance with that guy, that MFE Fighter, someone who was almost supposed to be the enemy, the other team, had hurt more than he could ever admit. It felt like poison in his veins.

He felt his heart hurt inside of his chest at the sight of Lance, elbow resting on the table, head on his hand, while he played around with the food on his plate as he always did, mindlessly, as he stared at that guy, Kinkade, talk about something. He didn't even consider it weird to see Kinkade, such a quiet and serious guy, talk to Lance with a such a big smile on his face, because if it was Lance, anyone would be interested. He stared at Lance, while he waited in line to get his breakfast along with the others, seeing his smile, his eyes profusely focusing on the guy in front of him, paying close attention to everything he said. Keith watched him as he smiled, laughed and talked to Kinkade with such enthusiasm you could tell he really was enjoying the conversation. Lance seemed to light up the whole cafeteria, and it hurt to think that Kinkade was the privileged one who had triggered that and got to enjoy it up close.

"I think I'm gonna go check the last details of the plan for tomorrow, I think... I think I forgot to do one thing." He poorly excused himself, he was such a clumsy liar and these two, Shiro and Adam, knew him so well –they could probably be his second parents, for all that mattered–, that he wasn't surprised by the weird and worried looks he received from the couple.

Shiro seemed to want to say something, but a look from Adam, a silent 'no', stopped him. Instead, he said good-bye to him, as his fiancé did, and went back to the wedding planning once more.

Keith left the couple's room, with the bittersweet felling still lingering on him, the same pain in his stomach as when he saw Lance that morning in the cafeteria.

As he always did when something was bothering, he decided to go to the training deck, the one Allura had installed using the altean technology she possessed. It was already pretty late, he guessed the place would be empty by now, seeing that most people would be having dinner or already on their rooms, so it'd be a good time to drop by, since it was always full of people for being such a newness for the Galaxy Garrison.

However, when he finally entered said room, it wasn't empty. As soon as he stepped into the room, he wished he hadn't done it. He wished he had gone straight to the room he was sharing with some of the guys of Team Voltron, having been assigned a few rooms to share once they were back at working at the Garrison, or that he had gone to check the planning for tomorrow's mission once more, like he had told Shiro and Adam. He wished he'd gone anywhere but there. Because it hurt, it hurt too much to see Lance and Kinkade together.

Lance was lying on the floor, with Kinkade on top of him. Keith could read into the situation, he wasn't dumb, it had happened to him before, they were probably training and ended up falling. But there was something in the way they looked at each other, so closely, as if trying to memorize each faction, each small detail on each other, the way their eyes seemed to met and stay there, fixated on the other, that made it all way more intimate than just being in that situation because of an accidental fall. It felt like a kick to the stomach.

Keith was about to turn back and leave, ready to just fucking go to their room and call it a day, sleep it all off, pretend nothing at all was wrong, even when he could hear his heart pounding on his ears, breaking, but Lance's voice stopped him.

"Hey, Keith." He turned around, seeing Lance getting up, while Kinkade stayed siting on the ground, looking at Keith with what he perceived as a grumpy look. "Don't go, if you want to use the training deck, go ahead, we're already done here, right, Ryan?"

Ryan, Kinkade, just hummed in agreement, as if Lance was the only one worthy enough of his words.

Keith felt his stomach turn once more at how they were close enough Lance was now calling Kinkade by his first name, it was stupid, but it sent Keith's blood boiling in jealousy.

"Whatever, I changed my mind." He answered, grumpily, sounding more pissed that he intended and cursing himself for it. Still, there was no way he could focus on training after what he had just seen, even less considering it happened in the same place he was going to train in.

"Wow, rough day, man?" Lance said, coming closer, in that tone that pretended to pass off as teasing but hid worry, Keith knew, he had grown to know Lance's ways too well. He had grown to pay so much attention to everything Lance did.

"It's none of your business." He simply said, and left before Lance could say anything else.

The guilt came pouring on him so quickly it left him feeling even more shitty than he was feeling already, and his feet, fueled by what looked like anger but really just hid pain and jealousy, automatically, with dread, made its way to his room. It seemed like, since he got back to Earth, everything he had been building up, that had taken so much effort from his part, was rapidly coming down, like a house of cards.

~*~

Lance was sitting on a corner of the room, on one of the sofas that room had, red cup of vodka on his hands, already feeling slightly drunk.

Ryan had invited him to the room he shared with the rest of the MFE Fighters, where they had decided to have a small party that night. As he had told Lance, this was something they sometimes did, Ina was good at sneaking in alcohol without the high ranks noticing and James was good and had enough trust from the superiors of the Galaxy Garrison to find nights when they were free of trouble, even if they made a lot of noise, when the commanders and superiors were out of sight. That one night, appeared to be one of the occasions.

Lance had doubted at first, they were having a mission next day, and even if it was late at night, he still didn't think it'd be very professional to show up with a hangover. However, Ryan had insisted, saying it'd be so much fun, and who was Lance to deny anything to such a pretty face? Besides, it had been ages since he had gone to a party or even just had a drink.

He stared at the contents of his plastic cup, wondering how could he already be so drunk when he had barely drunk that much yet. He attributed it to not drinking for so long, maybe he had lost practice, so much time in space without alcohol may had lowered his tolerance. After all, he had been drinking since he was sixteen, regardless of the legal age being eighteen in Cuba. No one really paid attention to stuff like that back there. Lance could easily remember summers full of partying with his friends back in Varadero. The reggaeton, the beach and the alcohol. Long nights of partying by the sea that ended up by sunset, leaving them dragging their feet back home, with the tiredness hanging on them and having them sleeping till the afternoon as soon as their heads hit the pillow. He remembered having drink after drink, shot competitions with his friends, and now that second cup of vodka with coke was already making the room spin like crazy.

Ryan sat next to him, he remembered hearing him say he was going to refill his drink just a moment ago, and smiled at him. It was curious how Lance had only seen him smile like that with him and, occasionally, at things his friends said.

He was sitting so close, their legs were touching.

"I imagined the great Lance McClain would have more alcohol tolerance." He commented, with a teasing smile.

Lance scoffed, taking another sip of his drink, feeling the strong taste of vodka burn down his throat. "I'm not drunk."

Ryan chuckled, putting his arm on the back of the sofa, behind Lance.

"Sure, you're not." He said. "You're not impossibly cute either."

At that comment, Lance felt his cheeks burn like crazy, not expecting Ryan to shamelessly flirt with him like that. He was usually the one flirting, and when it was the other way around, Lance was always caught off guard.

"I–."

"You're so fascinating, Lance." Kinkade interrupted him, which wasn't that bad considering Lance didn't even know what he wanted to say. "You really are. And the worse part is, you don't even realize. You don't see how everyone turns to look at you when you step in a room, how everything lights up when you do, how you make people want to get closer to you."

Lance sat there still, speechless. Was he really like that? He doubted it, but it was nice hearing that from someone you liked. For one night, Lance was ready to fall into all the lies, drown in them, drown in teenage love.

Slowly, without breaking eye contact, making sure Lance was fine with it, he leaned in. Lance closed his eyes, accepting the invitation, wanting to kiss Ryan just as bad. He felt Kinkade's plump lips press against his, soft and rough at the same time, gently kissing him. One of his hands was resting on his thigh, stroking it, making his skin tingle under the touch. Lance slowly put his arms around Ryan's neck, falling into the kiss, opening his mouth for their tongues to fight against each other in a heated kiss. He had wanted that so bad, his body was screaming for it. Lance moaned into the kiss and Kinkade pushed him on his back, lying on top of him on the sofa, kissing him till their last breath. They pulled apart and went back at it, making out like two adolescents moved by lust and crazy hormones.

When they finally pulled apart, lips red, slightly swollen, they looked at each other with lingering lust in their eyes.

"God, you're so hot, McClain." Ryan whispered, against the skin of his neck, voice husky.

He kissed his neck, sucking on it, making Lance whimper, his breath becoming heavy. Lance's fingers tangled on his hair, softly pulling, and Ryan went back to his lips, kissing him once more before separating again.

"I'm gonna go get you another drink." He whispered in his ear.

It was then, that Lance realized that in the middle of their little make out session, he had dropped what was left of his cup of vodka on the ground. He just hoped James wouldn't get too angry at him for staining their floor. Oh well, Ryan would surely get him out of the hassle.

He sat there, slightly breathless, processing what had just happened. He had just made out with Ryan Kinkade, MFE Fighter's main shooter, practically considered part of the enemy team for the Voltron Team, in the sofa of the MFE Fighters' room, surrounded by all of his friends who, surely, saw all of that. Lance felt his cheeks burn once more at the realization. Maybe he was indeed kind of drunk already.

Then, all of a sudden, not even making sense, his mind traveled to Keith. To his upset expression when they bumped into each other at the training deck, his harsh words. He knew him, he knew he was hiding something, he was well-aware of how Keith tended to hide his true emotions under a mask of anger. It hurt. It hurt to even look at him, to pretend everything was fine when really, nothing was.

He didn't truly love Ryan.

Ryan was nice, funny, shared so many interests with him. He was also such a good kisser, as he had just found out. But he wasn't Keith.

He didn't drive him crazy, made him want to punch him in the face and push him against the nearest wall and kiss the fuck out of him at the same time. He didn't feel the same need to know every single detail of him, to find out every little habit he had. He didn't spend every waking moment thinking of Ryan and, definitely, he wasn't his first thought in the morning and his last at night, like Keith was. Lance was in love with Keith. It didn't matter how hard he tried to ignore it, to push those feelings away, he was so into him he was almost losing his mind.

Yet, still, when Ryan came back with two more drinks for each other, sitting just as close as before, if not more, Lance took the drink and sat on his lap. Because it didn't matter how much he loved Keith, Keith didn't love him, so maybe the best he could do was just drown in the idea of forgetting unrequired love in alcohol and passionate gay lust.

~*~

When Keith opened the door at three am in the morning, after hearing quiet knocks on the door, the least he was expecting was to see Lance leaning on Kinkade, who was practically holding him in place, drunk out of his mind. His face was all red, lips hanging open, slightly swollen and red, his usual clothes were all messed up, one sleeve of his jacket hanging from his shoulder, and his glassy blue eyes were staring into nothingness. Keith had never seen Lance in such a sorry state, not even being able to stand up on his own. When he didn't see Lance in the room they shared with Hunk, he had assumed he was with the others of Team Voltron, maybe sleeping in another room after how he had treated him, or, in the worst case, one that Keith really hated to even consider, sleeping in Kinkade's room; but, under any circumstance, had he thought he'd go to some party to get insanely drunk a night before an important mission.

"I'm sorry to wake you, he was just really drunk so I figured the best would be for him to go to bed already." Kinkade whispered, apologetically, as if everything was completely normal, as if Lance wasn't at the previous stage to passing out, making Keith even more angry.

"What the fuck, man!?" Keith whisper-yelled, mad, but still not wanting to wake up Hunk, who was sound asleep inside of their room. "How the fuck do you let him drink this much!?"

Kinkade looked taken aback by the sudden attack, like he didn't expect Keith to react so badly, as if the situation wasn't that serious for Keith to need to get angry and throw bad words at him.

"He said he was fine with drinking." He said, defensively, running a hand through his hair, like he knew, deep down, that wasn't right. "Look, I don't know... he was fine, but I think he took too many shots at the end."

Keith opened his eyes wide, incredulous, wondering just how much had he drank to have him like that. He hadn't even said a single word since the two of them arrived, and that was Lance, he  _never_  shut up. Right now, though, he looked so out of it, Keith wondered if he was going to pass out at any second.

"Common sense missed you or what?" He snapped, words filled with venom, getting increasingly angrier. "Just get the fuck out of here, before I make you pass out on the floor."

At that, the guy did get mad. He saw him frown angrily, jaw clenched and fist closing. For a second, Keith thought he'd leave Lance sitting on the floor of the hallway and take that offer to get in a fight in the middle of the hallway, in the middle of the night. Instead, he held onto Lance tighter, pulling him closer to him and making Lance whimper.

"Why do you care so much? You're not his boyfriend or anything." He spit, viciously.

He didn't like Kinkade, he didn't really like any of the MFE Fighters, he thought they were just pretentious elite who thought they could get away with anything just because they were the top of their class. He was still willing to put up with them all for the mission, but he would not stay still if they messed up with any of them; specially not with Lance.

He was about to say something back, not caring if it put the mission in jeopardy, when they were stopped by Lance.

"Keith..." He said, low voice and in a whiny tone.

He stumbled further, getting away from Kinkade and, instead, practically falling into Keith's arms. Keith's heart skipped a beat, just before picking up speed. Lance clumsily wrapped his arms around Keith, burying his face on his chest, closing his eyes, breathing in Keith's scent and enjoying his warmth.

"Tell him to fuck off already." He whispered, or maybe Lance thought he whispered, because, truth was, he had said that as loud as you'd talk in the middle of the afternoon, making Keith snort before shushing him, between laughs, not wanting to cause a racket at those hours.

Keith looked at Kinkade defiant. "You heard him."

The guy just rolled his eyes at Keith. Then, without warning, he ruffled Lance hair and left a kiss on his forehead.

"Good night,  _cutie_."

If Lance wasn't holding onto him like he was, Keith would've for sure kicked his ass right then and there, even more after the mocking look Kinkade had shot him after saying his good-byes to Lance.

When the MFE Fighter was finally out of sight, Keith let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, feeling his shoulders relax.

He heard Lance laugh, carefree and happy, like he hadn't heard him in so long, and looked at him, who was already staring at him. Lance's hand reached for his face, ending up on his cheek, softly caressing it, and Keith allowed himself to enjoy the gesture, to enjoy how his stomach filled with butterflies at such a simple action. Lance's eyes seemed to tell him not to worry anymore, that everything was fine now.

But then, his face contorted into an expression full of pain, his lips quivering. Before he noticed, Lance was already crying. It started off as a quiet crying, but soon broke into heartbreaking sobs, inconsolable.

Keith quickly closed the door to their room, again, not wanting to annoy Hunk, even if he knew Hunk would be just as ready to punch whoever needed to be punched for Lance, no matter what time it was.

"Hey... Hey, what's wrong?" He pulled Lance away from him a bit, enough to be able to look at him, grabbing both of his shoulders.

Lance, however, just kept on crying, staggering and whipping his tears away with the back of his hand, just like a kid. Keith, worried to the bone, decided the best would be to sit him down, have him calm down a bit, and then put him to bed, so he carefully made Lance sit on the floor of the hallway, with his back against the wall next to the door to their room, sitting next to him.

Lance continued to cry for bit more, his sobs filling the deserted hallway and further breaking Keith's heart, making his concern grow, as he hugged him, drawing circles on his back, trying to comfort him.

"I love you." He stammered, voice breaking between sobs. "I love you, Keith. So much."

Keith's heart skipped a beat, or maybe blatantly stopped. He couldn't believe Lance had just said that –he pondered on the possibility of having misheard him– but his voice had sounded so honest and so painfully hurt, he knew there was no way Lance's words weren't true. The honesty dripping from his drunk-stained words left Keith breathless. He never thought he'd live up to hear those words coming from Lance, he was certain he would never love him back, he thought he liked Kinkade, as much as it pissed him off the idea.

But Lance was sitting next to him, in a desolated hallway in the middle of the night, as if they were just idle teenagers, his big ocean eyes looking at him with fear and so much pain, and he felt like the world had just stopped for them.

"Don't worry, you don't have to say anything, I know you don't feel the same." He sniffed, whipping his tears with the sleeve of his jacket. "I know you like James, I kind of over-heard the conversation you had with Shiro at the hospital."

Keith looked at him wide-eyed, incredulous, not even knowing if he was feeling more self-conscious at how Lance had heard him talk about  _him_  like the whipped idiot he was –he'll have to admit it to Shiro, he was right, Lance did love him back– or if he wanted to face-palm and kiss some sense into Lance. Because, god, how could he possibly like that dense as fuck asshole?

"You're so stupid." He ended up saying, in retrospect, maybe making a bad choice of words, since it made Lance cry more. "No, don't cry, I mean you're stupid because how could I like that asshole? The only thing I want to do to him is punch him in the face. I...I was talking about you."

He looked away, embarrassed, fixing his gaze on a stain on the carpet of the hallway –it looked as if someone had dropped their soda and the stain had stayed there.

"But... But you said you guys argued all of the time and–." He stopped right in the middle of the sentence, as if he had finally understood. " _Oh_."

"Yeah.  _Oh_." Keith agreed, smiling to the ground.

Still, Lance seemed not convinced. So he went on; "But you said he was so amazing and that it had been so long since you last saw him."

Keith blew a laugh through his nose, looking back at Lance, unbelieving. He couldn't believe, didn't want to, that Lance couldn't see how much value he had, how selfless and caring he was; how he really could take down a galra cruise all by himself. He had gotten so good at piloting, he had even adapted to Red so easily, when it took him almost drifting off into space just to gain his respect, and not only his shooting but also his ability with close-range combat had improved so much too.

"Lance... Jesus, how can you be so stupid? You–." He repeated.

"Okay, if you're gonna keep calling me stupid, I'm–." He attempted to get up, but Keith pulled him down again, grumpy expression on Lance's face.

"Okay, okay, sorry." Keith apologized, a ghost of a smirk on his lips. "It's just... How can you not see it? How can you think so lowly of yourself when you're so unbelievable amazing? Your pilot abilities have gotten so good, you're definitely, without a doubt, our cool ninja sharpshooter –I still can't believe you didn't miss and shoot Slav when they captured him!– and, above all that, you're so lovable. You care so deeply about everyone dear to you. No wonder Kinkade likes you. No wonder everyone wants to get to know you."

Lance looked at him wide-eyed, mouth slightly agape, his crying had stopped, all that was left were his eyes, deep bright blue and slightly red, and his cheeks red from whipping the tears away, from rubbing at them so much with the sleeve of his jacket. He was a vulnerable mess, but still so damn beautiful.

"Lance, it had been so long since I last saw you," He kept on explaining, justifying how he was talking about him back in the hospital room. "I spent a whole year in the quantum abyss."

Lance looked like he was, in his drunken state, slowly trying to process it all. He could almost see the pieces click in his head, tentatively grasping the idea of Keith loving him.

"So... You like me?" He ended up saying.

Keith smiled, fondly, and nodded. "Yeah, I like you. No, scratch that; I love you. I'm in love with you, Lance McClain."

And suddenly, before he knew, they were kissing. A mess of tongues, mouths open wide, drowning in the other like bees submerge in flowers, needy and with so much love and care for each other. It took them so much, fear overshadowing honesty, messing things up till it left them in this moment. Kissing and kissing again, gasping for air, desperate to feel each other.

Keith knew Lance was all he wanted, he was like the home he never truly had, ripped away from his grasp too soon, leaving him chasing a feeling of belonging that never truly came –until Lance appeared, loud, so loud Keith didn't wonder he ended up falling for him, as if it was the universe sending him a sign, in blue neon lights. Lance felt like a warm and cozy bonfire, like laying on your back watching a night sky full of stars. Familiar and nice.

Keith pulled Lance closer, Lance sitting on his lap, while they made out. Lance's hands were on his face, as Keith's were on Lance's back, lazily tracing shapes. Keith tasted the alcohol on his tongue, like an inviting poison he couldn't resist, drowning him in. He almost felt as if he was floating, it felt like a dream that would fade in the morning. He heard Lance moan, low, in the middle of the kiss, and Keith thought he'd lose it right then and there.

Lance pulled away, resting his forehead against Keith's, looking at him in the eyes.

"I love you so much." He said, still kind of slurring his words, yet still being cute as hell in the eyes of Keith.

Keith smiled, he kissed his forehead, whispering against it. "I love you too, Lance."

After that, it didn't take too much for Lance to get tired, for his eyes to almost close on his own, even when he complained about how he wanted to keep making out with Keith. Keith just laughed, grabbed him bride style, despite Lance flustered complains, because he was in no state of walking properly without bumping into something –more so considering the big mess their room was– causing a disaster in the dark of the room and getting hurt.

They laid on Keith's bed, Lance refusing to sleep all alone on his own, insisting on how he wanted to sleep with his now proclaimed boyfriend.

"You're not saying all of this because you're drunk, right?" Keith whispered then, voicing his fears.

He was so afraid that this all was fake, he didn't think he could handle anyone else abandoning him. Not Lance.

He couldn't properly see Lance in the dark of the room, but he was almost certain he was staring at him with the same incredulity as Keith had looked at Lance a while ago, back in the hallway.

"Keith, do you even know how much it hurt to see you leave, how much I missed you?" Lance said then and Keith could hear the pain in those words. "It felt like losing a part of me. And I... I realized that maybe I didn't hate you so much... that maybe I actually liked you, loved you. You were the only one who was there for me all along, despite the bickering and the fights. When you left, everything felt so void, everything lacked its brightness and color."

Keith smiled, feeling the so-called butterflies fill his stomach, snuggling closer to Lance.

"I'm sorry I left." He apologized, truly feeling sorry for hurting him so deeply. "I... thought it would be for the best. I left to protect you. I saw how you were doubting yourself, how you wanted to step aside and I... I couldn't allow that. The team needed you, it still does, you're like... its backbone, keeping everyone together."

"But I needed you. You are my backbone." Lance stated, his fingers now playing with Keith's hair. "When you came back, it felt like being able to breathe again, like everything falling back into place."

"But we messed things up." They said at the same time.

They quietly laughed.

"Shut up, it was my dumb ass who messed this up." Lance softly hit his boyfriend's arm, proceeding to go back to playing with his hair afterwards. "It was me who was so dense that thought you were talking about another guy instead of me and proceeded to further fuck things up by messing around with Kinkade."

Keith sat up. "So, you guys were actually together?"

Lance paused for a second.

"Well... sort of... we flirted, and I made out with him but..." He sighed, suddenly so ashamed and regretful. "I didn't feel anything, it didn't mean anything, all I could think of was you. To be completely honest with you, I was just with him to try and forget you, 'cause I thought you didn't feel the same."

Keith's heart beat on his chest, maybe he had every reason to feel jealous but, instead, he felt sorry for Lance, about how much he must've suffered loving someone so much and thinking they didn't love him back. He understood, because it was exactly what had happened to him too.

He let out a soft laugh. "Look at you, fully embracing your bisexuality."

Lance laughed too, grabbing Keith and pulling him back to lay by his side.

"Right now, I just want to embrace you."

Keith smiled and left a kiss on Lance's cheek, getting comfy in Lance's arms. They fell asleep like that, and it had been so long since Keith felt this happy, falling into a dreamless and peaceful sleep.

~*~

The morning came, too loud, too bright, for Lance. His head was pounding and the light that came in from the window behind the bed made his head hurt even more, as if burning right through his eyelids.

"Ughhhh." He complained, voice rough, hoarse. His mouth felt so dry.

He rolled around, cuddling Keith more and burying his face on his chest to hide from the light. Keith felt so warm and smelt so nice, like a rainy forest, on a cozy autumn afternoon, that made Lance unconsciously smile.

"Good morning, sunshine." Keith whispered, in a sleepy husky voice that made a shiver run all over Lance's back. That had to be one of the sexiest things he had ever heard, just when he thought Keith couldn't get any hotter. "Is the life of the party regretting that party now?"

Lance scoffed, but still clung onto Keith, without any real intention of letting go any time soon. He still couldn't believe they were there, cuddling after sleeping on the same bed, after admitting their feelings to each other. Keith loved him back, he was in love with him, and Lance was still trying to wrap his head around it, was still hoping he hadn't imagined it all in his drunk delirium.

"I'm not regretting anything if it made us end up like this." Lance admitted, looking up at Keith with a smirk.

Keith turned red at the boldness of his words, not having expected a statement like that so early in the morning, and buried his face in the crook of Lance's neck.

Lance let out a soft laugh and kissed the tip of Keith's nose, making him get even redder. "I love you."

And there, right there, Keith felt his heart pick up speed again. He smiled, looking at the man in front of him. His deep blue eyes, a blue that Keith would never get tired of looking at, a blue that was no match to the sea nor the sky. His tanned skin, shining softly under the first rays of sun that were pouring from the window, golden brown. His messy chesnut hair, slightly curly in the hangover mess, falling over his face. His lips, slightly parted, inviting, tempting Keith to kiss them. So he did. He cupped Lance's cheek with one of his hands and gently pulled him even closer, their lips meeting. He got on top of Lance, caging him under his body, deepening the kiss, bodies pressed up against each other's.

"Oh, my god." They suddenly heard, coming from the other side of the room, and just then, they remembered they weren't alone, that they were actually sharing that room with Hunk. "So it finally happened. Good, that's great, really cool; but please don't have sex with me in the room. Give me a warning first, I don't mind leaving the room just for you two, I can go to Pidge's, but tell me before... this, happens."

They both turned completely red. Lance reacted before Keith, pushing him to the side to just  _flee_ , grabbing his shower supplies just before exiting the room, in a rush, still madly blushing.

Keith, laying on his side, on the bed he had been sharing with Lance, just burst out laughing. His boyfriend was so cute.

Hunk seemed to find the situation just as entertaining, if not more, because he also started laughing with Keith.

"So, you guys are together now? What happened last night? I think I heard screaming." Hunk asked then, sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing Keith.

Keith sighed at the thought of what happened. He was still so mad at Kinkade and, worse of it all was that they were supposed to go out on a mission all together and Kinkade, the same Ryan Kinkade that had made out with Lance, was teamed up with Lance. He wasn't jealous –maybe a bit– but, after what happened, he didn't feel that good about leaving them both alone. If Kinkade did anything to Lance, maybe Keith would end up being kicked out of the Galaxy Garrison again, but it'd be definitely worth it.

"Lance went to a party with Kinkade and the rest of the MFE Fighters and he came back drunk as fuck, but Kinkade seemed completely unbothered even if Lance looked about to pass out." He explained, feeling his anger come back.

"Wow." Was all that Hunk said. Still, Keith was sure Hunk wouldn't hesitate to team up with him if anything bad happened to Lance.

After that, Hunk and Keith begun getting ready too, dressing up in their new uniforms. Hunk saw that little off time as the perfect opportunity to tease Keith a bit about his relationship with his best friend, and just talk about random stuff, like how awful the cafeteria's food was and how eager was Hunk to make some actual good food. Despite everything, Keith knew Hunk's teasing would be nothing compared to Pidge's and Shiro and Adam's.

Not long after, Lance came back to the room. His hair was no longer the hot mess that had been when he woke up, instead, it was now perfectly combed, slightly wet at the ends. He had clearly gone through his usual skincare morning routine, too, since it didn't matter how awful or tired Lance was; he followed his skin regimen religiously. He was wearing his new blue uniform too. All in all, it was hard to tell Lance was hungover after almost passing out last night from how drunk he got at that party.

"You're something else, baby." Keith commented, as he got next to him to finally go get some breakfast at the school cafeteria, messing with his boyfriend's hair, just to annoy him.

~*~

"Be careful out there." Lance told Keith, grabbing him by the back of his head, pushing their foreheads together. "Don't go all reckless, I'm too young to lose my husband in the war."

Keith snorted.

"Dumbass." He whispered, smiling at Lance. Then, seeing the way his boyfriend's blue eyes pierced through him, a serious look on them, he added; "I promise I'll be careful."

Lance smiled, as if he could breathe again, and pulled apart. He swallowed the 'I might be a dumbass, but I'm a dumbass for you, and I promise, Keith Kogane, one day I will make you my husband', it was to early for that, he guessed, but maybe 'He's like the future' was a close call to it. He hoped Keith had caught up to it, and that he was willing to spend the rest of their lives together, always having each other's back.

"Besides, I have my cute ninja sharpshooter watching my ass." Keith added, smirk on his lips, and smacked Lance ass for extra measure.

Lance turned completely red, making Keith fall into a fit of giggles, leaning on his boyfriend while he laughed. Such a beautiful laugh that Lance wished he could hear it more often, that they weren't always on the hit and miss of war, and he decided to make it his life mission to make Keith laugh more, smile more, make him happier all together.

"I think," Lance said, still blushing. "the expression is actually 'watching your back' but, I'll admit, it's hard not to look at that ass."

Now, it was Keith who blushed.

"Okay, lovebirds, time to split and kick some galra-robot butts." Pidge interfered, grabbing Keith's arm and pulling him towards their car, since they had been assigned in the same team.

"Wait, Pidge, I think Keith forgot something." Lance interrupted, grabbing Keith's free arm, the one Pidge wasn't desperately pulling at, tired of their PDA.

Keith looked confused, as if he couldn't think of anything he was forgetting, he was about to ask, when Lance cut him off by kissing him. Pidge groaned. Lance and Keith just ignored them, Keith grabbing Lance's hips to pull him closer, while Lance's fingers played with that mullet that, oh well –his mullet wasn't so bad after all.

"Good luck, don't die out there." Lance whispered over Keith's lips, that same serious look back on his eyes.

Keith smiled, reassuring him. "Be careful, Lance. I love you."

"I love you too."

Lance smiled, that cute smile that made Keith's insides melt, making him forget about the mission and the war and the dangers of it all for a few seconds. For a moment, all that was filling Keith's mind was Lance, Lance, Lance and how cute and handsome and hot he was.

"Lance! Drag your ass over here already! I'm tired of waiting on you and your  _churri_." He heard Veronica shout at him, making him blush, embarrassed, and Keith laughed, even if the moment was broken.

Lance's sister wasn't actually assigned on their mission, but she was driving Lance and his team to the frontier.

As Lance turned away to shout back at his sister in Spanish, Keith looked at Lance one more time, smiling to himself, just before turning back to Pidge, going over to their own car.  

He silently hoped everything went well that night –it had to, they were just eliminating a few galra drones that remained around Earth– so he could go back to Lance. He couldn't wait for it to be over, to be far away from James and all of the MFE Fighters who were consuming his patience more and more each day, and just go back to bed with his boyfriend, snuggle next to him and kiss him softly. Yet, he had this gut feeling, tugging at the back of his head, like a bad feeling he couldn't quite shake off, and he knew it was probably nothing, just him being a little on edge to not have Lance right by his side –even if he'd still be watching his back from a distance–, but he couldn't help it. He bit his lip, trying not to think of it, he was probably just being a little paranoic, so he simply ignored it, getting in the car with the rest of his team.

He wished he hadn't ignored it.

They were almost at the end of the route they had set, after days of looking into it, having taken down the mayor concentration points of galra drones around the area, when Keith noticed a drone turn the corner, going near a building that was out of the stablished route. None of them thought anything of it, if anything, Pidge was the only one a little wary of the situation, but they still didn't try to stop Keith nor James from stealthily following it.

"What are you doing? That's not the set route." Lance's voice came through the intercom of his helmet, suspicious and worried.

"We think we saw drones in that building, might as well finish them off too while we're here." Keith answered, low voice, trying not to make too much noise.

Despite how worried Lance sounded, Keith's voice had sounded calm, as if there was nothing to worry, even if that was not part of the plan and it could turn out completely wrong.

"I don't think it's a good idea. Keith, I... I don't feel so good about this." Lance sounded more and more worried at each step Keith took and he just wished he had a way, that it wasn't only his voice, to reassure him that everything was fine.

Still, seeing that there wasn't any other way, he just told Lance everything was fine, that they had everything under control, and proceeded to go around the building.

Turns out, his gut feeling from earlier was right, as was Lance's too. When he turned around the corner with James –Pidge had stayed at the original point, to guard that area and make sure everything was going as planned, that everything was secured while they checked that out– he was met with a horde of drones. In all the route they had followed that night, taking down various points of drone concentrations, they hadn't found even half of the quantity of galra drones that building held. It was almost like an army.

They weren't prepared for that and thus, the way of handling it, under the panic of laser guns and swords aimed at just two of them –Lance's team barely being able to cover them from the shadows, as the building was mayorly getting in the way of it– wasn't the appropriate.

Keith wasn't sure who it was, if he had pushed one of the drones against a wall he shouldn't have, if one of James' attacks hadn't been right, or if it had been the drones' fault, shooting and hitting at everything with no consideration whatsoever for the building in ruins they were in. But, at one point, in the blur and heat of the battle, in a confused mess, the building begun collapsing on them.

James managed to get out just in time, before he was trapped in the wreckage; but Keith didn't.

He was forced to watch the building fall on him, as he heard the shouting of his boyfriend through the intercoms, anxious and scared, just before the whole mess and chaos cut them off, losing the connexion. He tried to avoid the falling pieces of the building as much as he could, with the aid of his jetpack, but he couldn't miss them all and ended up with a numb arm and a hit on the head that had him slightly dizzy, disorientating him for a few seconds as he laid on the ground. The collapse of the building had, luckily, buried some of the galra drones underneath it, so it was not all that bad. Nonetheless, there were still plenty of them for Keith to fight off alone. Keith didn't falter, though, it was not the first time he was left on his own in the eye of the hurricane. He was used to loneliness and to fending for himself.

~*~ 

Lance was hysterical. He had warned him, had pleaded Keith not to enter that building, he had had such a bad feeling, and Lance was one to always trust his instincts –hell, that's what ended up landing him on the Red Lion–, they were usually right; just as they had been in that moment. As the building collapsed, Lance's team seeing it fall to its foundation from the distance, at shooting point but still unable to help, he felt the air leave his lungs, his heart pondering hard in his ears as he watched the wreckage.

"Keith! Keith, are you okay!? Are you there!? You hear me, buddy!?" He screamed through the intercoms, anxiety eating him from inside, making his riffle shake in his hands, frantically waiting for an answer that never came.

"It's okay, I'm sure he's fine." Kinkade, next to him, reassured him, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Still, Lance shook his hand off, getting away from him, angered at how he was being so calm about all of this. Keith could be seriously injured, if not dead, crushed by the debris of a building in ruins, or maybe even fighting those galra drones all by himself. Nothing was fine.

"Kinkade is right, you need to calm down, we'll work this out." Another girl in his team, Lance couldn't bother to remember her name right now, said, looking at him with cold serious eyes.

Lance shook his head once more, laughing in incredulity. They had to be insane if they thought he would just stay put and wait to see how the situation unfolded. He didn't care if his actions put the mission in jeopardy, if him leaving his position to go find Keith in the remains of the building would result in the mission failing. He couldn't care less about it all, the mission had already failed considerably after James and Keith ignored the set route to enter that building, right now, his only and top priority was the red paladin. Keith was way too important, too precious, for Lance to lose. If he did, Lance didn't think he'd be able to get over it. Keith was his strength, his  _backbone_ , the one who always, since day one, pushed him to try harder, to constantly improve and be a better version of himself. If Lance lost Keith, he'd have nothing. He'd lose the light that kept him going forward.

"What happened?" Pidge's voice came in through the intercoms, sounding just as worried and alarmed.

Kinkade sighed, tearing his eyes off Lance, a worried look on them.

"The building collapsed. James seems to be okay, but Keith got caught under the wreckage." He paused for a second, giving Lance one more look. "Lance wants to go in."

As serious as the situation was, they heard Pidge snort. "Well, duh, I'd be more worried if he didn't."

Lance smiled, grateful someone finally understood him, and shot a smug look in Kinkade's and the other girl's direction. That made Kinkade sigh once more. He got on his knees in front of Lance, holding him by the shoulders and looking into his eyes in a way that made Lance sort of uneasy.

"Lance, listen, I'm so sorry about what happened last night. I truly care about you, this was never a game to me, it wasn't a 'I'm gonna get in the sexy blue paladin's pants just to mess with him', I really liked you. But I," He paused, looking away for a second, in the darkness of the night, his features looked hard, like cold marble stone. "I understand you like Keith. To be honest, I could tell since I first saw you two. I knew there was something more than the bickering, it was so different from how Keith was with James. The way you two were towards each other it was... genuine. Full of so much trust and appreciation."

Ryan let out a soft laugh and Lance could tell he was trying to play it off cool, as if it didn't hurt him, as if he was completely fine with all of that when Lance could really tell he was being honest, that he really cared for him. Then, Ryan looked at him again, determination back on his dark brown eyes.

"I know I can't stop you, the bound you two have is so strong I don't think I can even come to truly understand it, but please,  _please_ , be careful. If anything happened to you, I don't think I could take it well either."

Lance smiled then, touched by Ryan's words, because Lance knew, all along, that he was a good guy. He wasn't like James, he was quite the opposite. It even rubbed off on James, he wasn't as condescending anymore. Kinkade had that power to silently, just by being there, make everyone better and gentler.

He hugged him. "I will, I'll be careful."

Ryan hugged him back, softly caressing Lance hair in a way a mom would do, with care and unconditional love. It felt like a good-bye, like conclusion, yet, at the same time, like a promise to always be there for each other, no matter the situation.

Lance pulled apart, smiling at him once more before getting up to get out of the high building they were in and go to where Keith was, silently praying for him to be okay, telling him to wait just a little bit more.

He ran through the few streets that separated him from where Keith was, feeling his lungs burn and his tired legs pushing him further, faster. His whole body was aching to get to Keith, to be by his side again, for him to be okay.

He finally reached the building, all broken pieces, walls down, debris and so much dust still lingering in the air, almost making it harder to breathe. James was outside, looking at the building with worry –it was kind of surprising, Lance had never seen concern on his face, usually he only saw him pissed off at something, and even more surprising for him to be worried about Keith's situation, although he guessed James wasn't that bad as to not care at all about one of his teammates. When he spotted Lance, he looked kind of taken aback, as if he wasn't expecting him there. Still, that expression didn't last long, it turned into realization, almost like he too knew what Lance and Keith were, and then settled back into worry.

"I think I saw an opening at the back, it's small, but it should be enough for you to go in." James told him.

Lance nodded, not wanting to start an argument and question him as to why hadn't he gone back to aid Keith if he knew about that opening, he wanted to think he had just found out about it, or was planning to wait for Lance in case things got even more askew.

He managed to get in, not without triggering the leftovers of the building to shake once more, some more parts collapsing, making an awful hard noise and raising more dust, and looked around. He spotted Keith, sitting with his back against what was left of a wall, panting and clutching his arm, blood dripping from his head, under the helmet they always wore –he thanked Keith had been wearing it, if not, he didn't even want to consider just how much badly the hit on the head he must've received would've been. Next to him was his blade, now having gone back to its small form, and around him the motionless bodies of the galra drones. Just as Lance had thought, Keith had been injured and, despite that, he fought the enemy all by himself.

He knew he was more than capable of doing so, that he also had the stubbornness and strength for it, but when stuff like this happened, when Keith fought as if he was the only one standing with the duty to protect the whole universe by himself, it made Lance's heart ache. It made him fight back tears at thinking of how Keith was like this because he had trust issues, because he had spent half his life alone, fending for himself, in an awful world that all it ever did was take and take and take so much of him but never give. The world was cruel, it was unfair Keith had taken so many hard blows, but still astounding how it never completely took him down. Keith was Lance's whole world, the one he'd protect until his knees gave up on him, until his lungs collapsed, until the universe swallowed him whole. Lance would fight the whole universe for Keith.

He walked towards his boyfriend, rushing with legs that shook with nervousness and so much concern at every step he took, as if quick wasn't fast enough. Still, his worries had been now considerably calmed, seeing that the building hadn't crushed Keith under its pieces, yet he remained unable to stay put as he watched Keith like that, gasping for air, shaking and injured.

He got on his knees in front of Keith, grabbing his face to force him to look at him, to make sure he was okay. He was shaking, Lance guessed it was because of his injuries, the humidity and coldness of the building in ruins and the adrenaline having faded out completely now. Lance bit his lower lip with worry, he was just wearing his armor, as Keith was, and as much as they mostly protected them from the cold, Lance wished he had his jacket or some blanket to cover Keith with, so he'd stop shaking.

"Lance..." Keith murmured, his voice low, shaky. He looked at him with glassy eyes, so disoriented, as if he was barely awake, fighting to not let the pain take over him.

Lance shushed him.

"It's okay, baby, everything's alright now. You did you so well. I'm going to get you out of here now. Can you walk?"

He had really done so well, on the floor were laying more than twenty dead bodies of galra drones, and to think Keith had taken them all out by himself –injured– was something that amazed, scared and worried Lance.

Keith weakly nodded after a few seconds, looking like he had trouble processing Lance's words, and Lance helped him up to his feet. Still, even if Keith insisted on how he could walk by himself, he ended up leaning on Lance as they got out of the building. One arm around Lance's neck and another surrounding his torso, almost hugging him, as if he needed the warmness and comfort Lance provided, and Lance smiled at noticing how he wasn't shaking that much now.

"When will you ever listen to me?" He softly teased, more concerned than annoyed, voice barely above a whisper. "And when will you stop fighting everything and everyone all by yourself?"

Keith breathed out a laugh, slowly coming back to himself, his lilac eyes going back to its original piercing deep look.

"When you prove you're better than me." He teased back, shooting Lance one of his characteristic defiant glances that had Lance blushing because, god, was he hot when he looked at him with that gloating look on his eyes "So far– I've killed at least ten more galra robots than you."

He ignored the teasing, deeming it unimportant, instead, focusing on the cough that interrupted his words, that shook his body next to Lance. It made Lance brows furrow with concern and his lower lip to be caught on his teeth once more, wanting to rush them to the Garrison hospital as soon as possible. Keith didn't look  _that_  bad, he was answering him, even attempting at their usual rivals banter that was never really gone, but he had received a hit on his head and that was no light matter. Lance could see the blood, deep crimson, dry on Keith's face.

However, he teased back, not wanting his boyfriend to get scared or anxious about it, not wanting to make the situation harder.

"Okay, babe, we can't all be as good and hot as Keith Kogane."

Lance smirked, even more when he saw the slight blush on Keith's cheeks, how he snuggled closer to him, almost hiding his face on his neck. He felt the smile against his skin and then, softly, a faint kiss being placed there.

"Shut up, you're one to talk about hotness." He answered, his shaking was almost gone now, and he was completely glued to Lance's side, hugging him. "You're so cute it's not fair."

Lance laughed but didn't answer, seeing they had finally made it back to the front of the building, where James stayed guarding the area. When he heard them come, he turned around, his eyes quickly falling to Keith.

"Oh, my god, is he okay?" He asked, looking genuinely alarmed upon seeing the state of his teammate.

Lance nodded and, more to reassure Keith than anything, he added; "He's fine, we just have to take him to the hospital and let him rest."

James nodded, even when he didn't really looked convinced, and led them back to where Pidge was. They informed them they had all been commanded to go back, since their mission, despite the inconvenience, had already been accomplished. Lance couldn't be more grateful, Keith had started to shake again, clinging to his side, breath heavy, and he just wanted to take him to the hospital as soon as possible.

He held onto him all the way back to the Garrison, to the hospital wing, as they sat in the car, close to each other. Keith tried to tease, but his voice eventually got quieter and more exhausted, barely keeping his eyes open. It worried Lance, it had his stomach hurting with so much fear he wished he could make the car go faster. When they finally did make it to the hospital and as the personal took Keith to a room to examine him, Lance felt cold himself, alone and worried in the hallway as he waited to know Keith's state.

The rest of his friends, even Ryan and the rest of the MFE Fighters, joined him, sitting next to him on the uncomfortable chairs of the hospital bay and promising him that Keith would be alright. Shiro and Adam, as soon as they were notified of the incident, also came, bringing Krolia too along the way. Lance smiled at his teammates words, even if his worries made him unsure, and lent on Hunk, enjoying the so needed company of his best friend, reassuring and familiar.

Not long after, when all of them had settled into their small conversations, a nurse reappeared, with a gleaming smile that comforted them, announcing good news. The hit Keith had received hadn't been that serious nor critical, as much as it had seemed like it in Lance's worried state, in that dark building in ruins, and he only had a slight concussion, along with a few bruises and wounds –nothing they hadn't taken before, at this point, wounds and scars were just like war trophies accumulating on their bodies. Keith just needed to rest and take things easy, since he had exhausted himself on the mission. The nurse then informed them they could go see Keith, but not too many at a time since it could overwhelm him. Lance didn't even stay to hear the end of the sentence, he practically run to his boyfriend's room, needing to see him, make sure he was really okay. And, most likely, also tell him off for his recklessness once more, as he always did.

He opened the door slowly, silently stepping inside. The room was dark, just illuminated enough by the deem light of the moonlight, slowly fading into the clouds; it would soon be dawn. Keith was lying on the bed, looking out the window, his eyes fixated on the way the clouds melted into each other, slowly, in a way that seemed to be able to quiet down all your worries. His eyes were calm, like a peaceful sea in a summer night, asleep until the morning came, awakening it with the laughter of children. It left Lance standing by the doorway for a while, simply contemplating it, the contrast of fierce fire that were usually Keith's violet eyes, burning into your skin with so much force and decision.

"Hey." Lance said, barely above a whisper, sort of star-stuck by the sight in front of him, by the masterpiece that went under the name of Keith Kogane.

Keith turned to look at him, a smile easily making its way to his lips, simple as breathing. And then his eyes were shinning with so much love, bright like amethysts, brighter than any star up there, –and Lance was left even more out of breath.

"Hey, Lance." His response came sweet, whispered in the dark of the room, guiding him to come closer.

Lance did so, sitting next to Keith on the hospital bed. His boyfriend put the white blankets up, covering the both of them, and laid his head on Lance's chest. It was comfortable, it felt like coming back home after a rough day.

Lance found himself daydreaming about a life next to Keith. It went past weddings and love promises, to a house next to the sea. It settled on cozy lazy mornings in bed, snuggled together –maybe there'd be a cat or two too–, to dancing in the kitchen as the breakfast got burned because they got  _too_  into it. Lance fantasied about that house and Keith, feeling his chest flutter at the possibility of it happening, of how simple yet natural and desired it came down to be.

He didn't need a thousand stars, he didn't need spaceships and aliens –he just needed Keith. Forever and ever. For as long as the universe allowed it, Lance wanted to stay by Keith's side.    

**Author's Note:**

> reminder to not hate kinkade!! we stan a hot mfe fighter, he just loved lance too much (i mean who wouldn't??) and was drunk when the argument with keith happened (he apologized later guys, also, it helped the klance get together so it's all good)  
> lance and keith living together and being all domestic makes me sooooo soft™  
> if you made it this far, thank you for reading!! leave kudos and comments if you liked it (please, for my lost sanity after writing so much, jk)  
> -cris


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